Halp! 11 Week Kitty

[Brill Weave]

Thanks Khamsin. Normally I wouldn't make a second thread, but seeing as he's my special boy I was getting a little bit concerned about the situation.

[Kael]

Yeah, losing all of his teeth at once seems really odd. Might want to call up the Vet just to be on the safe side?

Or have you been able to get a hold of Cercie?

My boys are doing well. They are used to their surroundings now and seem to LOVE the shoulder of my couch. They climb up and lay on it. :3

[Achika]

I hate bumping threads, but this thread has been very useful for info for me. I'm about to get a kitten for my new house.

One question I have though. We all know that cats have claws. I want to try to deal with this, but declawing is NOT an option for me. I know it hurts them a lot, I'd rather not put him/her through that. I think it's illegal in my state anyways, or so my dad said. Regardless, not an option.

I was looking through pages on Google for tips on how to deal with cats, and I stumbled upon this product. Does anyone have an experience with it? I want to know how well they work. I've never been one to listen to testimonials from the website selling the product, so I figured I'd ask the real people.

Barring that, what other options are there? I'd probably be getting the claws trimmed by a vet or groomer to keep them manageable either way. What else can I do to prevent my furniture from becoming confetti?

I guess a scratching post would be a good idea. Should I get multiple of them and place them in different rooms? How can I train the cat to use it instead of my furniture? Just spritz it with a spray bottle if it goes for furniture and reward it for using the post? I also heard they don't like noises like a can of coins, is that true?

Sorry, I'm a n00b cat owner. =( But I want to make sure my kitty is happy and healthy and not making me or my sister angry! =D

Edit-Apparantly a person made a comment about some this stuff earlier in the thread, I must've forgotten that I read that. Still interested in other reviews of the Soft Paws thing. =)

[Rafbacca]

Clipping a cats claws is not that difficult as long as you get them used to it while young. I use regular nail clippers on my cats. I also have a few different scratching posts around the house, 2 that hang from door knobs one that looks like a cat recliner and one thats part of her 6' Kitty Condo Tower. Easy tip when starting out to clip their nails wrap them in a towel and only expose the foot you will be clipping. this way they can't scratch or squirm their way out (Don't wrap it around their head, duh!) make it look like a kitty burrito. Spray bottle works as well to keep them from tearing up furniture. also if you catch them and take them to the scratching post when they start on the carpet and furniture they'll get the idea that the post is their for that reason.

[Tetrarien]

I just bought a simple cardboard scratching pad that came with a tiny packet of catnip. When I got my kitten, I put the pad out and sprinkled some of the catnip on it. Kitten proceeded to have a glorious time rolling on it and scratching it, and since then has for the most part only ever scratched on that pad (except for my computer chair, which I don't really care about and thus let her scratch).

I personally don't trust myself to clip her claws lol. So I just take her to Petco or wherever to get them trimmed whenever they need it.

I have a cousin that uses softpaws for her kittens . She seems to like them. The kittens apparently just need to get used to them at first, but other than that she's had no problems. They just pop off after awhile, so you have to get them reapplied every so often.

[TacoTaru]

Declawing is really bad for cats. I don't remember all the details but my wife has told me all of the points before.

It can cause really bad joint and arthritis problems from what I heard and I really didn't want to do it to mine, but it was either give him up to a shelter or get him declawed, so I went with the latter. It was particularly troublesome because of his age (6 years old) but he came out of just fine and he's just as bouncy and friendly as he was before.

That being said, I would not do it unless you have no other option, it is pretty cruel considering they basically saw the end of their toes off.

EDIT
Oh wow, didn't notice I had been had by a necrobump!

[Kael]

I hate bumping threads, but this thread has been very useful for info for me. I'm about to get a kitten for my new house.

One question I have though. We all know that cats have claws. I want to try to deal with this, but declawing is NOT an option for me. I know it hurts them a lot, I'd rather not put him/her through that. I think it's illegal in my state anyways, or so my dad said. Regardless, not an option.

I was looking through pages on Google for tips on how to deal with cats, and I stumbled upon this product. Does anyone have an experience with it? I want to know how well they work. I've never been one to listen to testimonials from the website selling the product, so I figured I'd ask the real people.

Barring that, what other options are there? I'd probably be getting the claws trimmed by a vet or groomer to keep them manageable either way. What else can I do to prevent my furniture from becoming confetti?

I guess a scratching post would be a good idea. Should I get multiple of them and place them in different rooms? How can I train the cat to use it instead of my furniture? Just spritz it with a spray bottle if it goes for furniture and reward it for using the post? I also heard they don't like noises like a can of coins, is that true?

Sorry, I'm a n00b cat owner. =( But I want to make sure my kitty is happy and healthy and not making me or my sister angry! =D

Edit-Apparantly a person made a comment about some this stuff earlier in the thread, I must've forgotten that I read that. Still interested in other reviews of the Soft Paws thing. =)

What I did for mine was get a scratch pad that had a hint of catnip under it. It is a woven square of a ropetype stuff. They scratch the heck out of it when they are playing around. Was pretty cheap too it was like $15 bucks at Petsmart.

[zoobernut]

It can cause really bad joint and arthritis problems from what I heard and I really didn't want to do it to mine, but it was either give him up to a shelter or get him declawed, so I went with the latter. It was particularly troublesome because of his age (6 years old) but he came out of just fine and he's just as bouncy and friendly as he was before.

That being said, I would not do it unless you have no other option, it is pretty cruel considering they basically saw the end of their toes off.

EDIT
Oh wow, didn't notice I had been had by a necrobump!

Yeah I just talked to my wife about this again last night. She said it was not 100% of the time but if you have your cats declawed there is a good chance it will cause terrible arthritis in their paws. She has even seen some cats where the tendons shrunk and their paws were all curled up permanently. You are lucky nothing happened to your cat.

[Cantih]

toothpaste out there is mostly meat-flavored

WHY IS THIS NOT MADE FOR PEOPLE!
You know you want to brush your teeth with bacon.

(I despise mint)

[Brill Weave]

Update on Meatball. I took him to the vet today to make sure he's alright. His front teeth on the top and bottom have come in. They couldn't feel any of his incisors yet which they say is odd. Otherwise he's good. He's not eating much because all of his teeth except for the incisors are coming in and it's ripping the little guy's gums up.